my creative space: little knitted bear

At the beginning of the week I was wondering... hmmmm... what am I going to do for my creative space this week...? I do have a few things on the go, as usual, but nothing worth I can show... just yet! Then, as I was cruising through blog world, I found this great little animal knitting pattern from Petite Purls on Dolls and Daydreams cute blog. I just love it when you see something and think "I can make that!" It was a great little project that didn't take much time and it's a good one to use up leftover wool too. I did change the pattern slightly(I always do!) as I only had 4mm knitting needles so I just made it slightly bigger.

:: wool - body - arms and legs - needles

So here is my little bear... I'm so happy with how he turned out and my little M loves him too!

:: little bear

::  a bear + a messy face after breakfast
= a very happy little boy :)

Hope you have had a great creative week :)
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

drawing course: week 1

I have been wanting to do a drawing course for ages! I've tried to enrol a few time but kept leaving it too late and then missing out (as there were no places left), which was good in a way as I got to do the watercolour course! So I finally go my act together and enrolled myself into the Drawing Essentials course at Sydney Community College with Kassandra Bossell... hooray!

My first class was last Wednesday and it was great fun! It is a basics drawing course and there were quite a few people there with limited drawing skills! My drawing isn't that bad (I think!) but I felt like I needed to start from the beginning and refresh my skills and hopefully learn some new ones!

It was a great class, everyone is really friendly. The room is a big art studio and it was quite exciting setting up the easel and drawing equipment... love it!  After the orientation stuff was over we started our first exercise - getting us use to using the medium of willow charcoal on A2 paper.  We drew circles, mine were very wobbly! Next we drew spirals, varying our weight and pressure of the charcoal on the paper. I really like how that one turned out!

:: circles and spiral

In the next exercise, we drew/made marks on paper to all different sorts of music. It was great fun to just let loose on paper!

:: drawing to music

The next exercise was drawing two egg shapes and imagine the light shining down from the top right corner. The first egg we used graphite pencil 6B in cross hatching technique which I really liked doing and I think it turned out quite well.

:: graphite egg and charcoal egg/potato?

The second egg we used willow charcoal and compressed charcoal, then shaded with our finger - very messy stuff :) I'm not too happy with this effort! I think my egg looks a bit like a potato, so I think I will be re-doing it again... I like to get things right :)

She also got us to do scribbles with all our mediums graphite, charcoal, Conte pastel and pencils so we can see what we are working with over the next 8 weeks.

:: mediums we will be using

It was such a great class, I just can't wait for next week!!

note: apologies for my dark photos... there wasn't much light around when I was taking the photos!

my creative space: traffic jam screen print

I find that I seem to need a specific little project like birthdays, to get me motivated to create designs! I get excited creating something special for someone, so I'm always happy when there are birthdays or special occasions on the horizon which there are quite a few coming up!

Yesterday, I screen printed two tops for a couple of friends little boys!  I have been dabbling with this car scribble design on and off for a while now and came up with "traffic jam"!  It has only three colours, which for me is easy peasy... usually I have loads more! I just can't do one colour!

I am so happy with how it turned out and the screen printing went smoothly with no hiccups!  I was a little worried with how the colours were going to look on the blue top but I think it looks really great.. phew!!! I can't wait to give them to my friends :)

:: 2 little traffic jams completed :)

Here is a little of my process:
Tuesday - I had pretty much finished this design a while ago, I just had to tweak it a bit!  Most of it is hand drawn, scanned and then put into Adobe Illustrator.  The cars do look a little wobbly, I didn't have time to adjust them so I fixed them when I cut the stencils out.

I cut out the three stencils, one for each colour, while I was watching my son eat his lunch, which can take a long time! I always like to do something constructive in that time!
ps: don't worry the craft knife was well away from my little boys, curious fingers :)

:: stencil cutting and a very mangled Vegemite sandwich
 in top left hand corner :)

Most people draw or trace the design onto the stencil paper and then cut it out. I like to print out the design onto paper, then tape it onto the stencil paper and cut directly through both paper and stencil paper, using a very sharp craft knife. I find this way more accurate and much faster! I really wish I could print directly onto the easycut stencil paper but unfortunately it doesn't work! If anyone has any other ideas/suggestions on this.. please let me know :)

:: three stencils for three colours

Wednesday morning - Mixed up all the paint colours needed and then screen printed the first colour, all before breakfast at 7am.

:: a very old screen

I screen printed second colour after a long breakfast with my little boy and the first colour was dry.

:: second colour done

Then after some vigorous jumping (not me) on the bed and pretending to be lions with my little boy, I screen printed the third colour. I'm always really nervous when doing the last colour... there is a lot of finger crossing and hoping nothing goes wrong!! Luckily it was all fine :)

:: third screen printed colour - completed... Yay!!

Hope you all have had great creative week :)
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

watercolour: making marks

I really enjoyed completing project no. 5 from Water, Paper, Paint by Heather Smith Jones this week.

:: project 5

A great little exercise using colour and different size brushes. I have a real soft spot for spots too... love them! I decided to use cool colours and instead of black for the small marks I mixed up a dark grey, so it wasn't so dark! I'm quite pleased with how it turned out :)

:: painting spots and adding more hue to
the paint to make it a stronger colour

:: used size 2 brush for the small marks

:: overlapping small marks on some of the spots

I learnt a lot from this little project, here are a few:

• I need to be a bit looser with my painting and not so perfect - my spots turned out a little too neat!
• I feel I should have used a more warmer colour palette and the colours just don't look strong enough; and it's looking a little cool!
• I really love the effect of the "all over" small marks, it took quite a while and a bit of patience; and I nearly ran out of the grey watercolour I had mixed up!
  note to self: mix more watercolour than needed!

my creative space: crochet and knitting

I have finished my dearest grandma's scarf, just in time for her birthday next week... phew! I'm so happy with how it turned out, she is going to love it! I love the colour and I'm so glad that is added the cream stripe so now it didn't look too plain!

My scarf is coming along slowly and is looking pretty good!  I have been knitting this while I watch my little 2 yr old eat his breakfast and lunch, which can take quite a while.. great for knitting! I'm getting much better at continental knitting and slowly getting faster! I am so glad I persevered, it is much quicker! Hopefully, I will get this scarf finished before winter is over! :)

There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

watercolour: dabbing, dripping and splattering

I found time to start two more projects from Water, Paper, Paint by Heather Smith Jones this week. I'm really enjoying working through this book.

Project 3: Dabbing with different materials

I love experimenting with different objects and materials to make different textures and patterns, so I'm really enjoying this little project...some things I used: the side of a vegemite lid - such a great effect, salt, masking fluid, paper towel, sponge, hair dying brush and of course brushes and watercolour paint.

I really love the colours and how it's looking so far (sorry the photo isn't that clear)... yep I still have more work to do! I have to be careful not to go too crazy or I may mess it up.... it's really hard but I must restrain myself!

Project 4: Dripping, blowing, splatting and squirting paint

It was great to explore these techniques, though this is not really my style but it was lots of fun.

I went a little crazy and it's a bit messy but love all the colours blending in together!  I got paint everywhere and the book got a bit of splattering too :)

my creative space: screen printing

I'm so happy that I got to do some screen printing this week - gifts for a few friends little ones :)  I did this screen print of a rainbow cloud for another friend a while ago and it was a great success! So I thought I would use this one again! It's so cute...I love it!

rainbow cloud

There are six colours on this screen print and I can do two colours at once, but I have to be really careful as it is a little tricky having two colours on the screen at once!

1. setting up... stencils paint etc.

Once I have set everything up - sorting out the paint colours, masking taping the tops to the screen printing board, then setting up the positioning for the stencils and the printing screens (you can see pencil mark lines on the masking tape), then it's time to screen print... YAY!

2. first two colours - purple and red

3. second two colours - green and orange

4. last two colours - blue and yellow

Phew.. I'm always happy when I have finished as it can be a bit nerve racking - with a lot of finger crossing and hoping nothing gets stuffed up.. which can happen!! I'm SO happy with how they turned out :)


Check out more creative people at our creative spaces...

I recieved - The Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you Emma from Daydreams and Colours for nominating me for The Versatile Blogger Award.... my first one and it's greatly appreciated. :)

So, the rules of The Versatile Blogger Award are that I write 10 things about myself and nominate some other blogs that I love (and are versatile)... so here goes.

1. I'm originally from Melbourne and grew up there, I went to London when I was 21 (for a few years), then I moved to Sydney. I know Melbourne people will think I must have lost my mind but I love Sydney! I do miss lovely old Melbourne town though....sigh!

2. I was totally nuts about Duran Duran when I was 16yrs old!! shhhh... don't tell anyone... I still am :)

3. When I was little, I was totally obsessed with Barbie... not to play with her but to make her clothes! She had such a fantastic wardrobe, I really wished it was mine!! :)

4. I studied fashion design and was a fashion designer in my younger years (in the late 80's). I sold my designs in shops on Greville St and Chapel St in Prahan, Melbourne, it was SO much fun!

5. I absolutely love animals, especially cats - when we are out and about, my partner is constantly amazed at how I seem to have x-ray vision for spotting cats 1,000 miles away... in bushes, on fences, looking out of windows etc...

6. I can't tell jokes at all!! I do try, to my partners dismay... there is a lot of eye rolling going on!

7. I absolutely love colour, but I tend to wear A LOT of black and grey!

8. I can spend hours and hours in art, book, fabric and yarn shops... to me this is pure heaven!

9. I'm a complete sucker for a real tear jerker romantic movie! I always end up a big soggy mess on the end of the couch... love it!

10. I think I am the luckiest person in the world to be with my wonderful partner and be a mum to my beautiful little boy... I couldn't ask for anything more :)

I nominate these lovely bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award:

Bubala
June at noon
Pink Ronnie
Polkadot Lane

watercolour: drawing, still life and squares

This week... I've enrolled into a class at Sydney Community College "Drawing Essentials" with Kassandra Bossell. I'm really looking forward to getting my drawing skills up to scratch again, even though I don't think my drawing skills are that bad, but I think my brain needs a refresher course to get more motivated to do more drawing! My plan for this course is take drawings I complete and create them in watercolour! The course starts on the 20th July...Can't wait :)

I been working on my still life and painted two watercolour glazes over the background, to make the foreground stand out more. I'm really happy with how it has turned out especially since it was my first watercolour still life. I loved the whole process of adding darker glazes to create the painting!

still life watercolour - A3

I have also completed (unless I start to fiddle with it again!) Project 2 from the water, paper, paint book. It was such an interesting exercise, completing the second layer of colour in a stronger hue, mixing the colours and adding them on top of other colours was great fun!

watercolour shapes - A4

My little squares and rectangles look like they got a bit out of control and ended up a little messy around the edges! I'm a bit of a perfectionist and love everything to be done perfectly so I was having a bit of a hard time letting go and allowing my painting to just be what it is... slightly untidy! But I do really like how it turned out now and especially all the colours :)